WORLD

62 people have as much wealth as world's 3.6B poorest, Oxfam finds ahead of Davos

Politicians and business leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps this week face an increasingly divided world, with the poor falling further behind the super-rich and political fissures in the United States, Europe and the Middle East running deeper than at any time in decades, according to CNBC.

Just 62 people, 53 of them men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire world population - or 3.6 billion people - according to a report released by anti-poverty charity Oxfam.

And the richest 1 percent own more than the other 99 percent put together.

Significantly, the wealth gap is widening faster than anyone anticipated, with the 1 percent overtaking the rest one year earlier than Oxfam had predicted only a year ago.

In 2010 it took 388 super-rich individuals to equal the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population. While this number has fallen to just 62 individuals, the amount of "wealth" held by the poorest half has shrunk by $1 trillion in the same period, the charity calculated.

AZERTAG.AZ :62 people have as much wealth as world's 3.6B poorest, Oxfam finds ahead of Davos